WRITING AFTER COLLEGE (WAC) essay and memo
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Evaluatingwriting_1.docxEvaluating writing: A selection procedure for recruiting accountants
Author: Rankin, Larry J
Publication info: Ohio CPA Journal ; Columbus 55.1 (Feb 1996): 19.
Abstract:
While the accounting profession recognizes effective writing as an important capability of its newly hired personnel, corporations, accounting firms and other organizations rarely evaluate the writing skills of their potential hirees as a specific selection procedure in recruiting. Traditional strategies of screening students' resumes and grade point averages, conducting on-campus interviews, and sponsoring office visits appear to provide little information about the writing skills of prospective accountants. A 4 step selection procedure to encourage and enable employers to evaluate the writing skills of potential hirees is presented: 1. Identify specific writing skills. 2. Develop a writing skills evaluation form. 3. Decide who evaluates the writing. 4. Obtain writing samples for evaluation.
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Abstract
While the accounting profession recognizes effective writing as an important capability of its newly hired personnel, corporations, accounting firms and other organizations rarely evaluate the writing skills of their potential hirees as a specific selection procedure in recruiting. Traditional strategies of screening students' resumes and grade point averages, conducting on-campus interviews, and sponsoring office visits appear to provide little information about the writing skills of prospective accountants. This article suggests and describes a four-step selection procedure designed to encourage and enable employers to evaluate the writing skills of potential hirees.
The purpose of this article is to suggest a four-step selection procedure designed to encourage and enable corporations, accounting firms and other organizations to evaluate the writing skills of potential hirees. The four steps are as follows:
Step 1: Identify specific writing skills.
Step 2: Develop a writing skills evaluation form.
Step 3: Decide who evaluates the writing.
Step 4: Obtain writing samples for evaluation.
Step 1: Identify Specific Writing Skills
As the first step in a recruiting strategy designed to evaluate the writing of potential hirees, employers should identify the specific writing skills associated with successfully producing documents in their work places. The identified job-related skills will then serve as valid criteria for which potential hirees' writing capabilities can be evaluated.
Organizations may carry out this writing skill identification process by consulting their practitioners, consulting writing specialists, or referencing published works. As one example of a published work, authors Claire and Gordon May identify and illustrate several specific writing skills in their excellent book Effective Writing: Handbook for Accountants (1996). These skills include accountants capabilities to write in a coherent, clear, and concise manner; use standard English correctly, including the proper use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling; design and prepare documents in a professional manner; and document references appropriately.
For illustrative purposes only, the remainder of this section describes the specific writing skills identified by the Mays. Employers may adopt these skills or identify others to serve as criteria for evaluating the writing skills of prospective accountants. Organizations may also identify multiple groups of writing skills with certain groups of skills more suitable to different entrylevel positions, e.g., staff accountants, supervisors, managers.
Coherence
Coherence is a particular writing skill enabling accountants to express their ideas in a logical and orderly way. Different qualities of coherence in accounting documents include the following: determine who receives the writing and for what purposes; determine the tone and style of writing; achieve unity within the writing by using thesis, topic, and summary sentences appropriately; organize ideas so that readers will find them easy to follow and understand; and edit and revise written work.
Clarity and Conciseness
The writing skills of clarity and conciseness enable accountants to express their thoughts simply and clearly. Following are different features of clarity and conciseness: use accounting technical terms that readers understand; avoid the use of jargon, unnecessarily large or unfamiliar words, and complex sentences; use the active voice rather than the passive voice for verbs; use descriptive nouns; use transitional words, transitional sentences, and transitional paragraphs appropriately; and use variety in sentence structure and length.
Standard English Grammar
A mastery of standard English equips accountants to write grammatically correct documents. Different qualities of this particular writing skill include the following: avoid fragments or incomplete sentences; avoid dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers; use parallel structure to ensure that sentence elements are grammatically uniform; use verb tense (past, present, future) consistently; use verb mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive) consistently; use subject-verb agreement; avoid faulty references, (a pronoun does not agree with its antecedent in number, person and gender); use capitalization correctly.
Standard English Punctuation
Accountants' correct use of punctuation is another writing skill associated with a mastery of standard English. Appropriate uses of punctuation include the following: avoid the use of a comma to separate two independent clauses not joined by a coordinating conjunction; avoid fused sentences in which two independent clauses are joined without any punctuation; and use apostrophes to show possession, not usually to form plurals.
Standard English Spelling
Mastery of standard English further includes the ability of accountants to spell words correctly in work documents. Characteristics of good spelling include using the dictionary to check the spelling of words, using spell check software, and proofreading documents for spelling errors.
Document Design and Appearance
Another writing skill enables accountants to select appropriate types of documents and to prepare documents in a professional manner. Different features of this skill include the following: select the appropriate type of document; use the correct form for writing letters, reports, memoranda, or other document types; prepare documents that are professionally acceptable in appearance; use formatting devices such as headings, lists, and graphic or other illustrations in order to improve the attractiveness and readability of documents; and avoid penciled or inked insertions or corrections.
Documentation and References
The last writing skill identified in this section describes accountants' capabilities to correctly document quotations and other references from external sources. Different qualities of this capability include the following: recognizing content material that should be referenced in the work document; using internal documentation, endnotes, or footnotes to reference external sources; and preparing a bibliography of cited references, if necessary.
The next section describes how to develop a writing skills evaluation form that is based on writing skills identified as important in a specific workplace. Step 2: Develop a Writing Skills
Evaluation Form
The second step in a selection procedure to evaluate the writing of potential hirees is to develop a writing skills evaluation form. The form provides employers a formal means to document the evaluation of applicants' writing capabilities. Organizations which identify a group of writing skills equally applicable to all entry-level positions should develop a single form containing those writing skills. Organizations which identify different groups of writing skills applicable to different levels of potential hirees (e.g., staff accountants, supervisors, and managers), should develop different evaluation forms, each specific to the hiree level.
This section both illustrates a potentially useful writing skills evaluation form and describes its two components, listing the specific writing skills and providing alternative choices for evaluating the skills. The illustrated form is based on the Mays' identified writing skills described in the previous section.
Listing the Writing Skills
The writing skills evaluation form should first contain a listing and brief description of each writing skill identified by accounting organizations. For example, the left side of the sample form shown on page 23 lists and summarizes the skills described previously: coherence, clarity and conciseness, grammar, punctuation, spelling, document appearance, and documentation.
In addition, the evaluation form should contain a single category representing an overall evaluation of writing skills.
Providing Evaluation Choices
The evaluation form should contain alternative choices for qualitatively evaluating each writing skill. For example, the sample form uses the following evaluations: Very Good (no examples of writing errors), Good (one or two examples of writing errors), Fair (several or repeated writing errors), and Poor (many or constant examples of errors).
Step 3: Decide Who Evaluates the Writing
The third step in the selection procedure is to decide who should evaluate the writing of potential hirees. Should managing partners in CPA firms evaluate the writing capabilities of their applicants? Should corporations employ writing specialists to evaluate the writing of potential hirees? Or should these organizations use diagnostic tests for writing evaluation purposes? Each of these approaches is discussed below. Practitioners
The first approach requires practicing accountants to evaluate the writing samples of their potential hirees and complete the writing skills evaluation form.
Advantages to this approach are its practicality and perceived cost savings, especially among small and medium sized firms. First, practitioners' working knowledge of their organizations' documents provides a practical and easy way to evaluate applicants' writing skills. A related advantage is that practitioners, particularly those in supervisory and managerial positions, may be able to evaluate writing skills required for different entry-level positions.
Several disadvantages, however, may discourage CPA firms and corporations, especially larger ones, from using this approach. A serious disadvantage is how do organizations meaningfully compare the writing evaluation forms completed by its practitioners who may subjectively interpret both the specific writing skills and evaluation choices differently? Many practitioners are not sufficiently trained to evaluate specific writing skills. Finally, practitioners may not have the time to carry out this potential selection procedure.
Writing Specialists
Another approach in deciding who evaluates the writing of potential hirees involves employing writing specialists. Organizations may employ such specialists either on a permanent basis or with part-time contracts. These writing specialists are capable of evaluating the writing samples of prospective accountants and completing the writing skills evaluation form. (To find a writing specialist, try technical/business writing instructors at a university or college.)
This approach provides employers with several advantages. One is that organizations can rely on writing specialists to both competently evaluate the writing capabilities of prospective accountants and complete the writing skills evaluation form. A second advantage is that this approach is cost effective if a large number of applicants are hired for the same entry-level position, e.g., hiring graduates as staff accountants. Writing specialists should be able to evaluate the different writing skills required for different positions. Finally, an important advantage is that specialists will give employers a more consistent way of evaluating writing, resulting in better comparability of potential hirees' writing skills.
Disadvantages of this approach are increased cost and impracticality. First, in addition to the direct costs of employing writing specialists, there may be administrative costs associated with coordinating writing specialist activities and waiting for writing evaluation results. A second disadvantage is that this approach may neither be cost effective nor practical for small and medium sized accounting organizations.
Diagnostic Tests
A third approach for evaluating the writing of potential hirees is to use diagnostic tests. Such tests are available from organizations such as Educational Testing Service (Princeton, New Jersey) in either standardized or customized forms. Customized tests enable accounting organizations to test and evaluate the specific writing skills of their prospective accountants.
The primary advantage of this approach is that the results of diagnostic tests provide a more meaningful measurement of potential hirees' writing capabilities, enabling employers to more objectively compare the writing skills of competing job candidates. Another advantage of using diagnostic tests is its cost effectiveness if large organizations hire a large number of applicants for the same entry-level position, e.g., national public accounting firms hiring college graduates for staff accountant positions.
The main disadvantage of this approach for accounting organizations is increased cost; that is, costs either to acquire the rights to use standardized tests or to develop and use valid and reliable customized tests. Further administrative costs involve the coordinating of diagnostic test-taking activities and waiting for test results. For many employers, the use of diagnostic tests may neither be a cost effective nor a practical alternative to evaluate the writing skills of potential hirees.
Step 4: Obtain Writing Samples for Evaluation
The last step in a selection procedure to evaluate the writing of prospective accountants is obtaining writing samples
Current Samples at the Start of Recruitment
One way for accounting organizations to obtain writing samples from potential hirees is to require one or more of their writings as a condition for starting the recruiting process. This may be accomplished by requiring prospective accountants to either prepare short papers, specifically assigned by practitioners or writing specialists, or take diagnostic writing tests. For validity purposes, assigned short papers should focus on real job-related topics and specific document forms.
Requiring current writing samples at the start of recruitment offers several advantages. Employers can use the writing evaluation results as additional input for screening applicants. Also, by using either similar writing assignments or diagnostic tests, organizations improve their own capabilities to compare the writings among potential hirees.
Several disadvantages, however, may deter employers from requiring potential hirees to write short papers at the start of recruitment, one being that these samples may reflect biased writing capabilities. Such writing samples probably reflect prospective accountants' very best writing efforts, with the prize of landing a job spurring them to spend a large amount of time on the sample or have a friend write it for them. A second potential disadvantage is the increased cost for employers to evaluate the writing capabilities of all potential hirees starting the recruiting process.
Current Samples at the End of Recruitment
A second way for employers to obtain writing samples is to require writing samples at the end of the recruiting process. Organizations can require already-screened applicants to prepare short papers, specifically assigned by practitioners or writing specialists, or take diagnostic writing tests. Furthermore, organizations can require potential hirees to prepare these papers or take the diagnostic tests at their premises during office visits. By using writing evaluations as one of the last selection procedures before making hiring decisions, organizations should be able to evaluate a fewer number of candidates and the writing evaluations may better reflect potential hirees' unbiased work, especially if the papers or tests are written during office visits.
Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and Regulations
The writing evaluation procedure described in this article is an example of an employee selection procedure that is regulated by federal and state governments. Employers should understand that laws and regulations require that such a procedure is valid and does not discriminate against potential hirees based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability A selection procedure is valid when its content represents important aspects of performance on the job for which applicants are evaluated. Employers enhance the validity of the writing evaluation procedure by identifying specific writing skills appropriate to particular entry-level positions, real work documents, and actual performance evaluations; assigning writing samples associated with real job-related topics and specific document forms; and employing evaluators who understand the relevant writing skills and who will fairly evaluate these capabilities.
For more information about employee selection laws and regulations, employers should consult legal or regulatory experts, read published regulations such as Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (29 CFR Section 1607,1978), or read published works such as Fairness in Selecting Employees (Richard Arvey and Robert Faley, 1988).
Conclusion
If the accounting profession recognizes effective writing as an important skill for all accountants, then the profession needs to increase its efforts to recruit prospective accountants with acceptable writing skills. Using the four-step selection procedure outlined in this article can help employers with this effort.
Sidebar
Write Better Now!
Agreeing that good writing skills are important is easy; the hard part is improving your own writing skills or those of your co-workers.These resources may help.
Books
Grammar for Smart People, by Barry Tarshis, 1992.An excellent, easy-to-follow soft-cover book that explains the basics as well as the subtleties of writing well.
Dictionaries
Beware of Webster's! The term "Webster's" no longer has copyright protection and is in the public domain.Anyone can throw together a dictionary and call it a "Webster's" dictionary.There are three major, reputable dictionary publishing houses in the United States: Merriam-Webster, Houghton Mifflin, and Simon & Schuster. Make sure your dictionary is current and published by a reputable source.A good dictionary is Merriam-Webster's Webster's I Oth edition Collegiate Dictionary.
Style Guides
Dictionaries tell you how to spell it and what it means; they do not tell you if it is barbecue or barbeque. For that, you need a style guide.The most widely used is the current ( 994 copyright) AP Stylebook. (Use barbecue.)
AuthorAffiliation
Larry Rankin is an associate professor of accountancy at Miami University in Oxford. He can be reached via e mail: [email protected]. muohio. edu.
Subject: Writing; Skills; Recruitment; Personnel selection; Guidelines; Accounting firms; Accountants
Location: US
Classification: 9190: US; 9150: Guidelines; 8305: Professional services; 6100: Human resource planning; 4110: Accountants
Publication title: Ohio CPA Journal; Columbus
Volume: 55
Issue: 1
Pages: 19
Number of pages: 4
Publication year: 1996
Publication date: Feb 1996
Publisher: Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants
Place of publication: Columbus
Country of publication: United States
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Accounting
ISSN: 07498284
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: PERIODICAL
Accession number: 01184925, 00563437
ProQuest document ID: 214822681
Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/214822681?accountid=9699
Copyright: Copyright Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants Feb 1996
Last updated: 2014-05-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Global
Citation style: APA6
Rankin, L. J. (1996). Evaluating writing: A selection procedure for recruiting accountants. Ohio CPA Journal, 55(1), 19. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/214822681?accountid=9699
